What a neat dream I just had today! In this dream I was engaged to a man I didn’t know through an arranged marriage orchestrated by the elders. Time period was such that this custom felt normal and acceptable. I saw my maternal grandparents busy and getting my wedding dowry ready! Our household wasn’t dirt poor; we had the basics and therefore we lived satisfied. Nevertheless this wedding dowry was demanding much of what we had. I was wondering if this bridegroom was worth it.
One afternoon the bridegroom and the marriage matchmaker was visiting our humble abode when I arrived home. I sat down dutifully on the floor next to my grandparents. Yes we had no sofas. It was old Korea, felt like 1950s after the war.
I couldn’t see my bridegroom’s face clearly for whatever reason but I saw that my grandparents greatly respected him. I felt comfortable and at peace with my bridegroom even if I barely knew him. I just stayed quiet with my head bowed as was the custom back then for young females. The matchmaker started to share the true realities of my bridegroom. He was the richest and most influential person in the world. All that he possessed were mine once we wed. The matchmaker encouraged me and my grandparents to keep ourselves pure, disciplined, study the bridegroom’s royal ways, and to continue our preparation for the marriage. As I was silently listening all I kept thinking was how much I can help my family, extended families, community and children with unlimited resources. There were tremendous needs all around us which broke my heart over and over again. This thought brought tears of great relief to my eyes. Then I woke up.
My family moved to America when I was eight years old from South Korea. We didn’t get to know both sides of grandparents well. None of us went to any of their funerals when they passed away due to our immigration status. I can not imagine the deep sadness and grief that my parents must’ve gone through mourning alone.
I heard that my maternal grandparents became deeply religious later on in their life as they experienced their oldest son and his family leaving them to come to America. They became poor so that the Lord can bless them eternally with true riches. They went to early morning prayers at their local church everyday. Korean churches are known to open their doors at 5am everyday for corporate prayers. I can only imagine the prayers that my grandparents deposited into our family before passing away.
I am deeply sad that my paternal grandparents were not in this dream. They were from a traditional Buddhist background. I know that there was a tremendous move of God in South Korea for many years after the Korean War. It would be very sad if they rejected Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit repeatedly.
I have been listening to the new Billy Graham radio station on Sirius XM in my car. I’ve never heard a sermon on hell until recently. I confess that I gloss over these passages in the Bible because it’s such a tough topic. Perhaps I can no longer gloss over this eternal ‘life and death’ matter for the sake of many nonbelievers around me.
Despite the sadness of not seeing my paternal grandparents in my dream, I am blessed with joy and hope regarding the preparation for the wedding with the bridegroom, Jesus Christ. As a member of His church I am a bride of Christ. Once his church is purified, we will be ready to wed him. According to the Bible Jesus is coming back to a perfect bride. In the meantime, as the matchmaker encouraged I will continue to do. Praise the Lord for this dream!
Acts 2:17-21 The Passion Translation (TPT)
17 ‘This is what I will do in the last days – I will pour out my Spirit on everybody and cause your sons and daughters to prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will experience dreams from God. 18 The Holy Spirit will come upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy. 19 I will reveal startling signs and wonders in the sky above and mighty miracles on the earth below. Blood and fire and pillars of clouds will appear. 20 For the sun will be turned dark and the moon blood-red before that great and awesome appearance of the day of the Lord. 21 But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Ephesians 5:25-27 The Passion Translation (TPT)
25 And to the husbands, you are to demonstrate love for your wives with the same tender devotion that Christ demonstrated to us, his bride. For he died for us, sacrificing himself 26 to make us holy and pure, cleansing us through the showering of the pure water of the Word of God. 27 All that he does in us is designed to make us a mature church for his pleasure, until we become a source of praise to him—glorious and radiant, beautiful and holy, without fault or flaw.
Here is the Billy Graham’s message.
There is a hell
Journal of Faith 